The Tongans are Polynesians, and inhabit a chain of
more than a hundred and fifty islands lying about two hundred miles south-east
and east of the Lau or Eastern Group of Fiji. Geographically, the present
Kingdom of Tonga includes five subsidiary groups and some outlying islands, with
a total area of two hundred and sixty-nine square miles. From Tongatapu, the
largest of the southernmost group and the island from which the kingdom derives
its name, the islands stretch in a north-easterly direction for a hundred and
seventy-five miles. Politically, Tonga comprises three groups: Tongatabu in the
south; Ha'abai in the centre; and Vavau in the north. At the period of their
discovery, these groups were separate political entities; and during the early
years of the nineteenth century they were not infrequently at war among
themselves.

The southern islands were discovered by Tasman, in
1643; and Captain Cook visited them three times; in 1773, 1774, and 1777. The
principal island, Tongatabu, is low, and irregular in shape, being much broken
up by a shallow lagoon. Nukualofa, the chief town and the present capital, is
situated on the north coast. The small islands of Numuka, forty-five miles
north-east of Tongatabu, are low and reef fringed; but there is an anchorage
which, at one time, was much used by ships bound for Sandalwood Bay, Fiji.

The central group, Ha'abai, discovered in 1781 by the
Spanish navigator Maurelle, includes numerous low and small islands lying off
the windward shores. Vavau itself is hilly, fertile, and covered with thick bush
and palms; its southern coastline is very irregular, one deep indentation
affording a land-locked harbour of rare beauty.

Low and small as most of the Tongan islands are, they
are separated by wide stretches of open sea. From the deck of a canoe, nothing
breaks the watery horizon until the land is near. There is, indeed, one natural
lighthouse, west of the Ha'abai Islands, where the cone of the volcano Tofua
rears its head above the empty seas; and during its occasional periods of
activity, it was a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, serving to guide
the Tongan seafarer. Sailing as they did without any of the aids to navigation
devised by Western peoples, the crews must often have been at the mercy of winds
and waves, and travel between the islands, in the frail canoes of the period,
must have required no little skill and courage. Notwithstanding these
difficulties, or perhaps because of them, the Tongans were bold and enterprising
sailors, not only was communication between the island frequent, but voyages to
Samoa, Futuna, Rotuma, and Fiji, were not uncommon.

The time and manner of the earliest westward movement
of Polynesians from Tonga and Samoa, to Fiji and beyond, may only be surmised.
Tongan tradition suggests that war-parties visited Uvea, Futuna, and Rotuma,
nearly a thousand years ago; but the first voyages were probably accidental.
Even when the existence of Fuji and other island groups to the west and
north-west was known to the Tongans, and after the period of organized
expeditions had begun, there were unwilling voyagers. Indeed, there still are.
Disabled cutters are occasionally blown to Fiji from Tonga even in these days of
the Diesel engine. During most of the year the prevailing winds are easterly,
with occasional squalls from the west or north-west during February, March, and
April. From May to November the north-east trade wind blows so regularly that,
when out of sight of land, the Tongan sailors laid their course by it. Should
the wind change, however, canoes might easily be driven too far west, and that
usually led to disaster. Mariner tells how a canoe on which he was travelling
got off the course in this way. With no land in sight, Mariner was toying with a
pocket compass he carried, and noted a change in the wind; but he could not
convince the Tongan crew of it. At length, by threatening to turn his musket
against them, he induced them to alter the course, and they obeyed him
silently, fearing the worst; but when familiar islands grew on the horizon,
their resentment changed to admiration and awe.

Whether deceived by an unnoticed change in the wind, or
driven west by storms, or overtaken by one of the violent hurricanes that
sometimes occur during the season from November to March, many Tongan crews were
unable to beat back against the steady rush of the trades, and were forced to
drift where wind and waves might carry them. the position of these crews would
have been hazardous in the extreme; but they had learned from such experiences
that the refs and islands of Eastern Fiji were spread like a vast net to
leeward. So long as the frail lashings of their canoes held, they sailed on,
many of them being cast upon the islands of Lau; others were driven through the
rare spaces between the reefs, and drifted on to the windward coasts of the
larger popular belief that the Fijians killed and ate "people with salt water in
their eyes", these castaways were well received. They settled where by chance
they landed, and Tongan and Fijian descent grew up in places as far apart as Viwa in the Vasawas, Nadroga on the south-west coast of Viti Levu, and the
islands of Lomaiviti and Lau. Thurston refers to the Kai Wai Tonga as a
well-known example: many years before the European discovery of Fiji, these
people, probably Tongans, drifted to Nairai, where they were hospitably
received, being adopted into the local tribe and given wives and land; they
rendered services to the chiefs in return for their lands, and they and their
descendants became as much a part of the community as the natural-born Fijians.

There is evidence that Tongans visited Fiji at a very
early period, and that they lived there in sufficient numbers to influence
customs, crafts and language; a number of Tongan place-names - Mago, Namuka,
Matuku, Kaba, Luvuka, Olorua, Late - are also the names of islands or districts
in Fiji. There were also the at least two important migrations of Fijians to
Tonga. The first of these probably occurred about the beginning of the
thirteenth century, when a party under Tui Motuliki (Motoriki) arrived at Vavau
during the time of the eleventh Tui Tonga, and was warmly welcomed, being given
land and the title Tui Talau. some of his followers were appointed
matapule or head-men; others settled in the Ha'abai and Tonga groups, where
many of the present inhabitants seem to have a Fijian cast of features. At a
later period, probably during the sixteenth or seventeenth century, Tabu'oji,
Tui Lakeba, went with a large following to Tonga, where he married the first
lady of the land, who was the daughter of the thirtieth Tui Tonga. Their
descendants constitute the lineage known as Fale Fisi (House of Fiji),
which has six representatives among the landed chiefs of modern Tonga, and is
said to be represented also in Fiji. these contacts were of a social or
political character; later, however, Tongans came to Fiji principally for the
exchange of property. It became known that sandalwood was to be obtained in Fiji
and as the Tongans had few trees of their own, and valued the wood highly,
canoes were sent to barter for cargoes of logs. By the end of the eighteenth
century the trade had become regular, and it was from the Tongans that Europeans
captains first learned of the wealth of Sandalwood Bay. The Tongans also carried
away Fijian articles of their own making; for the Fijians displayed greater
ingenuity and a higher degree of manual skill than their neighbours in Tonga.
Earthenware pots, also, were in demand; and these the Tongans could not make for
themselves, even had they known the Fijian parrots, whose feathers were used by
the Tongans to adorn the fine mats worn by chiefs, and also as a convenient
article of trade with the Samoans. In Samoa, the scarlet feathers were worked
into the mats and mantles worn by the chiefs on ceremonial occasions; and the
green ones were used in the head-dresses worn by the taupo girls. So keen
was the demand, indeed, that the Samoans kept Fijian parrots in captivity,
plucking an annual crop of feathers from the live birds.

Notwithstanding this trade, communication between the
two groups seems to have been infrequent and haphazard until the middle of the
eighteenth century, by which time the attractions of Fiji, with its frequent
wars, fast-sailing canoes, and superior crafts, were so well known in Tonga that
a journey there came to be regarded as a necessary finish to a young chief's
education. At the period of Captain Cook's visits, expeditions were becoming
popular; and towards the close of the century they became almost annual events,
the highest chiefs taking part in them.

As a result of their growing intercourse with Fiji, the
Tongans began to appreciate the superior qualities of the Fijian double canoes
over those built by themselves or the Samoans; and the principal cause of their
more frequent visits during the later years of the eighteenth century was the
eagerness of the Tongan chiefs to replace canoes of local build by new ones of
the Fijian type. In Tonga, there was little timer of a site and quality suitable
for the construction of these large vessels, and it became the practice for
parties of Tongans to sail up on the wind to Lakeba, arrange with the chiefs
there for logs and food in exchange for Tongan bark cloth, weapons, or services
in war, and then to establish themselves on islands such as Vulaga and Kabara
and build, or help to build, the canoes. At a later period, when whaling ships
frequented Tongan waters, whales' teeth and iron implements were the most
favoured articles of trade; the first iron implements seen at Somosomo were
brought there by Tongans, the Fijians naming them after the chiefs who
introduced them. The sails for the canoes were obtained from the Yasawa Islands,
Macuata, or Kadavu, all of which were district noted for the quality of their
sail-mats; and the trade gained for these districts a welcome share of the
Tongan whales' teeth and iron tools. With the increase of Tongan influence and
domination, however, the trade deteriorated into tribute paid by the Fijians to
buy off marauding bands.

The building of a large canoe took from three to five
years, or even longer. Altogether, the trip to Fiji, the work of building the
canoe, and the return journey, commonly occupied up to seven years; and the
temporary Tongan settlements became permanent as parties overlapped. In 1840,
Wilkes's officers found three large Tongan canoes under construction at Vulaga,
one of them 102 feet long. The work was being done by Fijian carpenters, under
contract to the visiting Tongans, and was being paid for in whales' teeth, axes,
and guns. Colonies of Tongan-speaking half-castes grew up in such centres as
Kero, Kabara, and Koroivonu (situated on the east coast of Natewa Peninsula,
with ample supplies of good timber available); and, living as they did amid
canoes and canoe-builders, and being to the manner born, these people showed
even greater aptitude for the work than the Fijian matai (craftsmen) who
had been their teachers. The time came when the "Tonga-Fiji men" had the craft
largely in their own hands.

When Tasman visited Tonga, in 1643, he saw no weapons,
and concluded that the people were at peace and had been so for a long time.
During a stay at Lifuka Island in May, 1777, Cook and his men were so well
treated that he named the place Friendly Island, though the name was afterwards
applied to the whole Group. He was deceived, however; for a few years later,
mariner learned that even while the visitor were being entertained with feasting
and dancing, the chiefs were planning to kill them and seize their ships. But
the Tongans could not agree whether to do it by stealth, at night, or by attack,
in open day; and while they were debating the point the ships sailed, and Cook
left praising their hospitality. The long peace had evidently softened the
Tongan men. It is unlikely that the Fijians of the period would have allowed an
opportunity to plunder two ships to slip through their fingers from lack of the
ability to agree about tactics.

Both Cook and Wilson saw a few Fijians at Tongatabu;
and both commented upon the esteem in which they were held. It is probable that
these adventurers represented the best of their people; for they were bold
spirits, who had journeyed to a new land relying for safety upon their own
valour and weapons. In Tonga, indeed, the Fijians were considered more
accomplished than the natives, who held their opinions and warlike qualities in
high respect. The Tongans believed that the Fijians fought with more ferocity
than their own warriors, and they adopted the Fijian customs of dressing for
war, and painting the face and body. On the other hand, they claimed that the
Tongan warriors were more tenacious in seeking revenge for insult or injury.

Their own land being at peace, the young bloods of
Tonga who thirsted for excitement and renown went to Fiji, where there were
alarums and excursions in plenty, the restraint of their elders. The islands of
Eastern Fiji were to the Tongan warriors what the fields of France were to the
knights and squires of Plantaganet England. The Tongan youth had only to join a
party going to Fiji for canoes, to place himself. The Tongan youth had only to
join a party going to Fiji for canoes, to place himself in the way of gaining
honour and fame enough to satisfy the most ambitious.

This intercourse, which did much to shape the course of
events in Fiji, had important influence on Tongan affairs also. Young Tongans
went home to show off new habits they had learned in Fiji customs such as the
strangling of widows were introduced; cannibalism came more common; warriors who
had blooded their clubs in Fiji fretted at the inglorious routine of peace.
Intrigue, treachery, murder, and rebellion resulted; and in 1797, Tonga was
plunged in civil war, in the course of which the people were disgraced by
barbarian as vile as any known among the Fijians men. the unsettling effect upon
Tongan chiefs and warriors of adventures in Fiji was the chief cause of Tonga's
"Dark Age", which lasted for upwards of forty years during the early half of the
nineteenth century. The chief Tu'ihalafatai is no doubt typical of many. At the
time of Cook's visit in 1777, he was Tui Tonga, and entertained the visitors. In
1872, however, he resigned the position and went to Fiji, staying there for a
long period and acquiring the warlike tastes and habits of the Fijians. After
his return to Tonga he soon tired of peaceful inaction; and later, in 1796, he
gathered to himself about two hundred and fifty young men "of unquiet
disposition", prepared and provisioned three large canoes, and sailed for Lakeba.
They were in Fiji for two and half years, during which time they fought,
"sometimes joining one side, sometimes another, as caprice or the hopes of
plunder led them". Towards the end of their stay they engaged in a war on their
own account," their superior bravery rendering them very successful. At length,
in May, 1799, they returned to Tonga, leaving their old canoes behind and
bringing new ones built in Fiji. One canoe and its crew were lost in a heavy
gale on the return voyage, but the survivors landed on Tongatabu on 28th May,
1799, and found the island in all the turmoil of civil war and invasion.

It was the old story of the downfall of a tyrant.
Tuku'abo, Tu'i Kanokubolu, had angered the chiefs by his wanton cruelties, and
was murdered in his bed, at Mua, by Tubouniua and his half-brother Finau II of
Ha'abai. The rebels destroyed the murdered king's canoes, and fled to their own
at Hahake. The loyalists rallied, but Finau defeated them in a stubborn fight
that raged till nightfall. A week later the rebels were surprised and defeated,
three missionaries being butchered in the fighting; and during the month of May
there was a series of battles, by which the rebels were forced back on Huhago.
There, faced with defeat in the very hour of triumph, finau and his warriors
anxiously watched two large canoes of Fijian build sweep in to the landing
place. These proved to be Tu'ihalafatai's canoes, arrived unexpectedly from
Fiji. their coming was most opportune. With such an accession of fighting men
fresh from warlike exploits in Fiji, Finau returned to the attack, and on the
following day, 29th May, gained a decisive victory over the loyalists. But the
fight was long and stern, and having lost many of his bravest warriors,
including Tu'ihalafatai, Finau returned to his own groups of Ha'abai and Vavau
to find the latter island in a state of rebellion. After a fortnight of guerrilla
warfare, however, he re-established his position there, and leaving his relative
Tubouniua as governor, sailed for Ha'abai.

Having beaten off the invader, the people of Tongtabu
were plunged into a civil war of succession. Though disrupted by factions and
weakened by famine, in 1800 they contrived a successful counter-rebellion, and Finau's representatives were killed. Finau came south to Tongatabu, but finding
the fortifications too strong for attack, he retired to Ha'abai, and from these
harassed the Tonga people by annual raids in which food gardens were destroyed
and stragglers cut off, but no fortified town was taken. Planting was neglected,
since the gardens could not be defended, and the island experienced the most
terrible famine every known in Tonga. Tubou Malohi, who was Tuku'aho's brother
and successor, fled to Fiji, remaining there for five years, and the island was
reduced to a state of anarchy.

Late in November, 1806, the British privateer Port
au Prince put in to Finau's island, Lifuka, for food and water. After only
three days, the ship was captured by the natives, beached, and broken up, the
hull being burnt for the sake of its iron. Twenty-six of the crew were killed,
but thirty-four others were allowed to live, and among these were the ship's
cannon, and Finau saw that here at last was the means to reduce the strongholds
on Tongatabu. When the time came for the yearly raid, his fleet of a hundred and
seventy canoes carried four carronades and sixteen sailors to work them.
Nukualofa, which hitherto had resisted all his attacks, was bombarded and taken;
but there the matter ended, for Finau could do no more. Leaving Tubouto'a as
governor of Ha'abai, to collect and forward the annual tribute, he returned to
Vavau to put down a local revolt. Once having tasted power, however, Tubouto'a
was not long in defying Finau; and until his death during an epidemic in 1809,
Finau was occupied with local quarrels and with raids to and from Ha'abai.

Finau's chief supporter had been his brother, Finau
Fiji, "one of the greatest warriors Tonga ever produced" whose name and renown
had been won in Fiji, where he had lived for five years at the turn of the
century. Finau Fiji secured the succession of his nephew, the late king's son,
Finau III; but the young king lived only two years, and was succeeded by his
brother, Finau IV, Finau Fiji being killed soon afterwards. Having gathered a
powerful force of warriors, many of whom had learned their fighting in Fiji,
Tubouto'a consolidated his position, retaining his independence while
maintaining friendly relations with his powerful neighbour at Vavau, and led his
people in ways of comparative peace until his death in 1820. He was followed by
his son, Taufa'ahau, who later became George, Tubou I, first king of a united
Tonga, known as well and feared as much in Fiji as in his own land. Finau IV of
Vavau died in 1833, having named Taufa'ahau as his successor, and thereafter the
two kingdoms were united. Tongatabu, now under Aleamotu'a, retained its
independence, but was constantly disturbed by the activities of a group of
rebellious chiefs.

During all this period of civil war and unrest, Fijian
war-canoes were in demand, and there was much traffic between the two groups. In
addition to Tongan canoe-builders, there were parties of refugees who, in order
to avoid the hardships occasioned by the wars, went to Fiji and settled there.
When at length the fighting dies down, warriors fretted at the unwonted
inaction, and many eyes were turned towards Fiji. Intercourse became more
frequent than ever, but it was still largely one-sided. The Fijians were less
inclined to leave their homeland than the Tongans; indeed, they had less reason
to do so, for Tonga offered little to attract them. Visitors to Tonga saw
perhaps one or two Fijians; in Fiji there were numerous communities of Tongans.
Wilkes reported that, in 1840, one-third of the population of Lakeba were
Tongans; they had taken possession of the island, seldom worked, and lived upon
the Fijians, who held them in awe. In September, 1846, Cargill saw more than
three hundred of them arrive at Lakeba from the leeward part of the Group. In
December of the same year Cross noted eighty others who had recently arrived
from Tonga. In April 1842, upwards of a thousand of them left Lakeba for Tonga
in fifteen large canoes, and some of these people had been in Fiji for two
years; for food they had been entirely dependent upon the Fijians, and they
purchased none of it; some was given to them, some they begged, and some they
seized or stole.

By 1840, the Tongans had obtruded themselves into
Fijian affairs to such an extent that they had become a menace to the high
chiefs and a heavy burden upon the people. The property, especially the
plantations, of their Fijian hosts was never secure against their depredations.
They robbed gardens and yam-houses, lied by begging or plunder, were foremost in
every petty fight; in parts of Fiji they domineered over chiefs and commoners
alike. They were conceited, beautiful and arrogant, aggressive and interfering,
idle and poor. Lawry, who came to Fiji from Tonga in 1847, found the Fijians
less attractive in feature and less symmetrical in form than the Tongans; but he
declared that the Fijians showed keener intellect, and that they were more
industrious and better disciplined. The Tongans, though they demanded so much,
would themselves generally refuse the slightest service unless they were paid
for it; and they were rarely satisfied with the payment given to them. Local
missionaries, who of all people might have been disposed to a favourable view of
the Tongans, described them as 'notoriously wicked, even in Fii', and as "in
every way inferior to the Fijians in character". They were influential, and
feared and courted by the high chiefs, who put up with their filibustering
swagger in order to gain their support in the family feuds and little wars that
make up the Fijian history of the period. But fellows, who bred famine wherever
they went. Their canoes were in demand for the transport of warriors and
tribute; for, owing to the nature of the seas they habitually sailed, their
sailors were better and more enterprising seamen than the Fijians, who, within
their own group, were seldom out of sight of land or beyond reach of shelter.
During historical times, Fijians never ventured to or from Tonga except in
causes manned by Tongans.

In Tonga itself, the Fijians still retained their early
reputation as warriors. Pritchard found that Tongans and Fijians always
displayed more personal daring when fighting on islands other than their own.
They were each of them feared and respected in the other's territories. In 1834,
when Cargill was at Vavau, great excitement was caused by the appearance of a
strange canoe, and it was rumoured on the beach that it was manned by Fijians;
but the people were relieved to find that it was a Tongan vessel. In Fiji,
however, so far from retaining their admiration for the Fijian as a fighter, the
Tongans learned to out-fight him, and to use him for their own ends. Tongans
became as great a scourge in these islands as the Danes were on the coasts of
England.

Typical of many Tongan chiefs who frequented Fiji at
this time were Lualala, and the brothers Tubou Tutai and Lajiki. Lualala was a
chief of high rank and authority, who had close associations with Fiji, for he
was a near relative of Tui Nayhau'a and his mother was a Fijian. He took a
leading part in the fighting and persecution during the religious war on
Tongatabu in 1837; and when his party was overthrown, he fled to Fiji, where his
arrival was regarded as a signal for renewed persecution of the Christian party.
The brothers Tubou Totai and Lajiki were princes of the blood, nephews of Finau,
and a wild and adventurous pair. Tubou Totai was quite a man of the world. He
had been to New South Wales, where he had been entertained and lionized by the
Governor and Lady Gipps; he had picked up sufficient English to speak it freely,
if quaintly; and he had a natural grace and elegance of deportment after the
excitements of travel, or perhaps the brothers became involved in political
intrigues, for in 1837 they fled from Tongatabu to Kakeba, pursued by a
war-canoe which failed to overtake them. In Fiji, they were soon deeply involved
in local affairs. With a large following of his countrymen, Jajiki went to
Samosomo to offer help to rebels and their allies; and later, when Tanoa's
fortunes mended, they accompanied him to Rewa and returned to Lakeba. By 1840,
the brothers were known ad received at all the important centres. Their
activities were varied. Cargill tells how Lajiki avenged the destruction of a
Tongan canoe and its crew by raiding the village responsible and clubbing sixty
of its people. Such a strong line of conduct put the Fijians in great awe of
them, and when the missionary Williams and his party landed at Yaro (Vanua
Balavu) in 1842, they were met by armed men, who thought they were raiding
Tongans.

Tubou Totrai and Jajiki spent their time in following
the native wars, visiting, feasting, and brawling. Jackson saw them at Lakeba in
1840, a few weeks later Wilkes met them at Bau, where they and five hundred
followers were being lavishly entertained. Wilkes used Tubou Totai as
interpreter, and made him pilot of one of his ships. When, on 22nd October,
1842, King George Taula'ahau himself arrived unexpectedly at Lakeba, having been
blown out of his course while on a voyage from Samoa to Ha'abai, the brothers
were there to meet him. Under instructions left by King George Jajiki called a
vono or council (5th December, 1842) with the object of bringing the
Tongans under better control. From what is known of Lajiki's own record, it is
not surprising that no improvement resulted. A year or two later, Lajiki died,
but Tuboi Totai continued his endless round of visits and entertainments,
accompanying Cakobau on the Natewa campaign in 1846. After Ma'alu's arrival in
Fiji, in 1848, however, he suffered eclipse, and no more is heard of him.

* * * *
* *

The advent of Ma'alu, which must rank among the
important events of the century, was a direct result of the unrest that followed
the birth of the modern Kingdom of Tonga. Political and religious rivalries on
Tongatabu had caused renewed civil war in 1837; and finding his position weak,
Aleamotu'a sent to Taufa'ahau for help in subduing his rebellious chiefs.
Taula'ahau led a vigorous campaign, restored order, and promulgated a code of
laws. Fighting broke out again in 1840, however, and Taufa'ahau was called in
once more. Commodore Wilkes, whose ships were then in Tonga, vainly attempted to
mediate; later, Captain Croker of H.M.S. Favourite lost his life in an
unwise intervention, and hostilities dragged on for several years. These
unsettled conditions had scarcely passed when, in 1845, Aleamotu'a died, having,
like Finau before him, named the able Taufa'ahau as his successor. The three
groups of Tonga were thus united.

The effects of the long period of anarchy and civil war
were still evident, and the chiefs of Tongatabu did not readily submit to the
new ruler. Those who had a grievance, or who favoured Taufa'ahau's rivals, left
for Fiji, which became a rallying-place for disaffected chiefs, restless
warriors, and adventurers, from Tonga. They were men who had tasted power and
the excitement of fighting, and who might be as willing to follow an able and
popular leader to "Tonga itself as to a Fijian province. During his short stay
in Fiji, Taufa'ahau saw enough to convince him that the freelance warriors there
were a menace to the peace of his own dominions. They were, in fact, a
potential army of invasion, lacking only opportunity and the man to lead them.

Taufa'ahau's succession to the kingship was not
undisputed. The claims of his young kinsman Ma'afu'ltoga were as good as his
own; and, while Ma'afu did not openly press his claims, Tongatabu was in such an
unsettled state that he might easily have become the leader round whom the
disaffected chiefs would rally. By sending Ma'afu to Fiji to organize and lead
the Tongans there, Taufa'ahau adroitly solved two major problems at one stroke:
he rid himself of his most dangerous rival by giving him authority and
opportunity enough to occupy his restless ambition - but in Fiji; and, since
there was none better fitted than this popular prince to control the free-lance
warriors there, and to occupy their attention with fighting, he removed that
menace also.

The presence of Lakeba of Tongan chiefs of high rank,
supported and served by strong parties of their own people, formed an effective
protection for the people of Lau against the oppression of Bau and Somosomo. In
1849, reports reached Kakeba that the Bau chief Mara, being dissatisfied with
the results of his recent visits to that island, was on his way with a
formidable force to attack the chief town. With six large canoes and three
hundred men, Mara appeared off Lakela on 26th October, and anchored within
musket-shot of the beach. He landed with a few personal attendants; but when his
warriors attempted to follow, "a Tongan chief stepped forward and ordered them
back to their canoes at the peril of their lives". They were kept ignominiously
at bay all night by strong guards posted on the beach; and, baffled and
disappointed, Mara had no choice but to submit. Two days later he left, full of
rage and threats against the Lakeba people; but he was unable to gain support to
for punitive measures at Bau, where, at the moment, the Tongans were in high
favour.

* * *
* * *

Faced with the problems of teaching the Fijians to read
and write, and of fostering the growth of small groups of converts, the
missionaries appealed to King George Taufa'ahau to send teachers to assist and
multiply their efforts. The first company of teachers arrived on 26th June 1838,
and proved excellent men, who made no less a contribution to the enlightenment
of the Fijians than the missionaries themselves. They were followed a year later
by a second company, four of whose number were placed in the newly-opened
district of Rewa. In addition to their work among the Fijians, these Tongan
teachers found plenty to do among their own people, and as a result of their
work, not a few Tongans who, though nominally Christian, had been as
undisciplined and savage as any Fijian, were reformed. Parties of them left to
return to a more normal life in Tonga, but the large numbers who still remained
were in the main unchanged. Some of the reformed Tongans stayed to fill
appointments as teachers, though many of these lacked the qualities of King
George's men; and in 1840, Thomas Williams complained that he was "pained by the
idle, indolent, and unfaithful conduct of some of them, and of Tongan church
members, who took "very unwarrantable liberties with the Fijians' property, and
with their persons . . . stealing provisions on Saturday for use on Sunday".
The
conduct of some of the Tongans made Williams "ashamed before the heathen, who
excel them in honesty". As far as the teachers were concerned, delinquents were
exceptions; of some of them, indeed, it was claimed that no better teachers
could have been found. They "sailed with their Tongan chiefs to many islands,
and had influence with men in power. Not hindered by fears, as many of the
Fijian converts were, their position was independent". But, owing to the
attitude adopted by the Tongan chiefs in Fiji, such a situation had the weakness
of being liable to deteriorate into the propagation of religion by armed force.
Under the pretence of "protecting" his countrymen, Ma'afu extended his influence
wherever opportunity offered. His first exploit was on Vanua Balavu. Invited to
intervene in a quarrel between Lomaloma and Yaro, he supported the weaker side,
whose chief had welcome a Tongan teacher. Thus strengthened, the Christians
gained the advantage; but they merely exchanged one oppressor for another, for
they found themselves so much under Tongan influence that instead of being
aliens they became servants. Ma'afu was able to assume control over both victors
and vanquished, and thereafter Lomaloma was his headquarters.

Ma'afu conquered Matuku, the southernmost of the
islands in the Moala group, in 1853. By claiming that he was protecting Tongan
teachers stationed there by the Wesleyan missionaries, he won the support of the
chiefs of Lakeba, and Vuetasau and after a three months' siege they took it, and
with it the whole island. When Lyth, the missionary of Lakeba, learned of the
matter, he at once expelled both Ma'afa and Vuetasau from membership of the
church which under the circumstances was a courageous act. But the cloak of
religion was too convenient to Ma'afu for him to shed it lightly; he continued
to pose as the protector of the new faith, and in due course these tactics gave
him control of Moala and Totoya. In each conquered island he replaced the
rightful chiefs with Tongans or Fijian underlings.

The missionaries were powerless to prevent this
aggression carried out ostensibly in support of their work. They disciplined Ma'afu and others, and protested strongly; but news travelled slowly among the
islands, and there Ma'afu continued his profitable tactics unhindered. In many
cases the Tongan teachers became political agents for Ma'afu; and, when reproved
by the missionaries for active co-operation with him and his filibusters, they
protested that "however glad they might be to be excused, they could not help
themselves, and had to do what their chiefs told them" which was doubtless true.
When at the close of 1850, the missionaries found themselves involved in a war
at Bua, they appealed to a Tongan chief then visiting Bau with three hundred
followers. The Tongans took up the challenge to the faith they professed;
Cakobau, "not wanting to have a war with Tongans on his hands, sent a messenger
to raise the siege of Dama", and peace was restored. The Tongans gained a
diplomatic victory over Cakobau, to whom they were becoming an increasing
menace; and, by their appeal to force, the missionaries weakened still further
their resistance to Tongan aggression done in their name. Under one pretext or
another - protecting Tongan teachers, aiding rebellious chiefs, bullying Fijians
into indiscretions, and levying tribute - Ma'afu and his Tongans carried war to
many parts of Lau, and the coasts of Vanua Levu. They forced their victims to
abandon savage practices and turn to the lotu; and they plundered,
massacred, and stole wherever they went.

The traditional methods of Fijian warfare were
ineffective against the Tongans, whose dash in frontal attack brought the Fijian
warriors to confusion. Pritchard, who was no admirer of the Tongans, asserts
that they seldom waged war without Fijian allies more numerous than their own
forces; and that these people - usually collected in the last village taken -
were pushed ahead as a screen. If they hesitated they found themselves between
two tires. This may account for the success of comparatively small parties of
Tongans, and for their immunity from heavy loss; it was not, however, due to
cowardice, for the Tongans were brave fighters, and far steadier under fire than
the Fijians.

The weakness of the Fijians in the face of Tongan
scheming and aggression was primarily due to their inability to combine against
the common enemy. Intertribal feuds, and rivalries among the chiefs, divided the
Fijians. The Tongans, on the other hand, were a compact body, never more than a
few hundred strong, but closely knit, and united in loyalty to their leader.
Ma'afu's skull in military tactics was exceptional, and his men believed in him.
without Tongan help, the Fijians believed they would fall; with it they won. And
all parties knew it. Ma'afu and his men achieved in Fiji a reputation for
invincibility comparable with that of Cromwell's Ironsides in Europe.

Ma'afu himself posed as the urbane Tongan aristocrat,
the friend of Cakobau, the protector of the missionaries, the patron of the
traders. He left it to his lieutenants Wainiqolo and Semist Finta to terrorize
the Fijians by calculated frightfulness; and wherever they went they swept the
country clean of oil, pigs, yams, mats, coconuts, and all the material of trade.
When Semist was at Yasawa, bullying the chiefs into conforming to the Tongan
idea of religion, and into providing sail-mats for the Tongan canoes, his
floggings were stopped by the courageous interference of an Englishman named
Hicks. Thus baulked, Semist intimidated the Fijians by threatening to complain
to Ma'afu, "who would send Wainiqolo, and he would make the land bad for them.
the possibility that Wainiqolo might come was as effective as the floggings. For
all his profession of high Christian principles, Ma'afu waged war with a
ruthlessness that omitted nothing of the horrors of Fijian warfare except
cannibalism. Enemies driven to take shelter in caves were smoked out and shot as
they ran gasping for air, or suffocated like rats in a hole. The progress of
Tongan war-party differed little from that of a Fijian army except in the
greater efficiency shown by the Tongans.

Outstanding as Ma'afu's skill in war undoubtedly was,
his real genius lay rather in statecraft, diplomacy, and administration. To the
authority that is the South Seas belongs to high and pure birth he added
qualities of leadership derived from youth, vigour, and keen intelligence. It is
not too much to claim that he was one of the eldest chiefs the Pacific produced
during the nineteenth century, and worthy to be compared with Kamehameha the
Great, who, a generation before, had united Hawaii and founded its dynasty.
Coming to Fiji in 1848, a young man in his twenties, he was not long in
gathering into his own hands the authority belonging to the aged Taleai Tubou,
the weak and indolent "tui Nayau of the period. By 1855, he had acquired
sovereignty over the islands of Northern Lau, and established himself at Lomaloma. The powerful kingdoms of Cakaudrove and Bua became at first his
allies, then his spheres of influence. Mcuata he conquered by club and fire.
Despite successive checks administered by the British consul and the commanders
of British warships, he united all Northern and Eastern Fiji in a well-governed
confederacy. When he turned to deal with Cakobau, he had every prospect of being
able to overthrow him, and of going on to realize his ambition of an empire
reaching as far as the New Hebrides (which he had visited) in the west and Tonga
and Samoa in the east; but as each opportunity for decisive action presented
itself, he round his schemes frustrated by outside interference. The cession of
Fiji to Great Britain in 1874 put an end to his ambitions, and left him a mere
pensioner of the Colonial government - a captive lion who grew old and mangy in
inactivity.

Thank you so much for visiting the above five Domains. I am very
pleased to be able to share with you that further limited advertising on
our Fiji Islands - A Brief History Home Page, along with other Web Pages
within the above Domains, are now available. Potential advertisers
are cordially invited to choose from several thousand Web sites
available for placement of your important advertisements.

I would like to sincerely thank everybody for visiting and for your kind
support. Best wishes and God's blessings to all. For further
information, please contact me at: